Balers are farming machines configured for collecting crop and produce cylindrical bales. Many balers are powered by tractors or self-propelled. Conventional round balers pick up crop and compress the crop into compacted bales in a bale forming chamber. There are generally three major steps in the operation of a round baler: bale-forming, tying, and ejecting.
A crop pickup unit picks up material lying on the ground and feeds it to the bale forming chamber of the baler to form a bale. Once the bale of desired density is fully formed, the vehicle may stop and a tying cycle may begin. With the forward motion of the baler stopped, mesh, twine or film is wrapped around the bale using an automated mechanism associated with the bale chamber. Once tying or wrapping is complete, ejecting may begin in which the bale chamber is opened, typically by lifting a tailgate, and the wrapped bale falls or is pushed out of the bale chamber. After ejection, bale-forming is restarted for a new bale and the operator feeds the crop to the baler and moves the baler through the field.
Continuous balers are balers that can produce ad eject a bale while picking up crop for the next bale. In this manner, continuous balers are not required to stop. Current continuous round balers are complicated in construction, include many moving parts, and therefore a major cause of reliability issues. Such systems may have two baling chambers, one located above the other, a feature which may pose challenges for baling dry crops and straw. This is because, the adhesion of dry crop to a unit which collects and guides the crop is minimal. Thus, the collected dry crop tends to accumulate and clogs at the entry of the baling chambers.
Another form of continuous balers uses endless belts inside baling chambers, which are complicated in construction. In such endless belts, initially the crop is fed to a belt, the slackness of which is gradually increased to forms a cylindrical cavity to produce round bale. After a predetermined quantity of crop has been fed to the baler, the belt rolls over the bale and the belt is now ready for next bale. This process requires many adjustments in the tension of the belt and therefore requires complicated sensors and linear actuators or hydraulic cylinders.
European Patent EP 3058806 discloses a round baler for forming a bale from a crop product. The round baler comprises a first bale forming chamber provided with a first bale forming mechanism, a second bale forming chamber provided with a second bale forming mechanism, a working unit, comprising a rotor rotatable around a rotor axis of a feeding mechanism, a transfer unit, and a density control mechanism, configured to detect a density of a preformed bale in the first bale forming chamber, wherein one or more sections of the first bale forming chamber provide for one or more control elements of the density control mechanism.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,253,948 discloses a continuous round baler system that has a baler and an accumulating system. The accumulating system includes a conveyor configured to convey crop material extending from a pickup mechanism to a bale formation chamber in the baler. A screed is positioned adjacent the end of the conveyor and is configured to be movable by a lifting mechanism between a raised position and a lowered position relative to the first conveyor. In the raised position, a gap is formed between the screed and the first conveyor so that crop material passes into the bale formation chamber. In the lowered position, the gap is closed thereby preventing the crop material from passing to the baler causing the crop material to remain on the conveyor.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,467,237 discloses a large round baler, designed as a non-stop baler, which includes a mobile chassis supporting a lower baling chamber section, defined by a floor conveyor arrangement, and an upper baling chamber section. The upper baling chamber section, together with opposite side walls, is mounted for fore-and-aft movement relative to the lower baling chamber section between a rear location, wherein it cooperates with the floor conveyor arrangement to define a rear baling chamber, and a front location wherein it cooperates with the floor conveyor arrangement to define a front baling chamber. The upper chamber section includes front and rear wall portions which are mounted for being raised once a bale is formed in the rear baling chamber so that the upper section may be moved to its forward location. A wrapping device is provided which is operable once the upper chamber section is moved to its front location, for wrapping the bale with overlapping wraps of sheeting made from plastic or the like so as to provide an air tight casing for the crop material so as to make silage.